Friday, 23 April 2010

what i found particualy interesting with this talk was Shankers method of using recycled objects and materials to make newly designed objects and architecture. I enjoy this concept of "what is one mans trash is another mans treasure" as i myself enjoy items that have a history behind them.

What was really evident in Shankers work was his indian culture and upbringing. I like this in design when people put part of themselves in their work, and aren't afraid to create a strong stylized look.

the sandals created in the video shown, by a woman using her own hands and feet as a tools. To me with my great simplest design in its purest form. An innate work ethic and a rich culture of hands on craftsmen-ship means that probably in all honesty, its small remote villages like this, where some of the most inventive and original design can be found.

Thursday, 22 April 2010

Ian Foxalls lecture, for me was probably the most inspiring of the whole discourse lecture series this. I always find it

interesting to hear from past graphic arts students who are now in industry. Last semester graphics had a talk from 2 past students Emily and Erin. It was really encouraging to see how they had gained worked were doing really well in industry doing the types of jobs that they wanted to do.

Again with Ian Foxall i got the same kind of encouragement. THis time i think it was even closer to heart because of the nature of quite a bot of his work. He works in a team with his brother and they have just published the first edition of turkish vouge. This for me as amazing. Working for a fashion editorial as big as vouge is my dream job and i was really inspired by how down to earth Ian was and yet he had achieved such great success in such a cut throat industry as the fashion editorial industry.

i was so inspired by his talk taht i went on his website and found yet more fashion editorial work that really really impressed me. Foxall Associates has produced the branding for a fashion photography retouch company called love retouch. This is an amazingly useful contact for me to have found as my garp is based around the advancement of fashion photography enhancement, and this company might be really useful to get in contact with.

Another thing i loved about Foxalls work was the turkish twist applied to the traditional vouge design. WIth a bit of clever typography the whole feel of the magazine had gone from urban paris/new york/milan feel to turkish middle eastern charm without loosing any of the high fashion status vouge is so famous for.

I was really glad i saw this lecture and hopefully will be in contact with Ian in the near future for research and possibly a placement opportunity.

this was a graphic arts visiting lecturer as appose to a practice discourse lecturer and i must say i fond it a lot more interesting than i have been finding discourse this semester.Im hoping that doesnt make me narrow minded in my views on art and design, in that i find a graphics lead talk far more interesting, ut i really do think it was the quality and content of this talk that swayed me as appose to it being solely because it was graphics led.

Craig Olham is from Music design agency and provided a hand out as well as slides to make his talk all the easier to follow and recall if needs be.

perhaps Oldhams most valuable lesson as a designer is to avoid the temptation to jump on the bang wagon and be a sheep, doing what every other designer is doing because one of them one day said thats what designers should do.his example was the showing of hands in photographs of design work. This seems very "cool" among budding designers at the moment as when asked why they say it helps convey the scale of the design work. However as Oldham bluntly pointed out “I’m a fucking designer, just say A2 sized poster.” i thought this was a pretty good point and quite amusing, as i did most of this talk.

He talked in depth about how he spent years "pain-stakingly" painting the word DESPAIR on a table only to find that every gallery he approached showed no interest in showcasing it, or in fact any of his works. He then went on to say that after years of painting these letters onto canvas.he lost is love for art. not the most inspiring start to a talk to art students.

the only part of his lecture that i liked was how he talked about one of his projects in which he painted the address of famous artists studios from around the world, and placed them in his own studio, saying the message behind this was to instill that anywhere can be a place of inspiration. i really like the idea behind this as anywhere you feel comfortable can be, by Whittleseas ideals, claimed as your own creative sanctuary.

i then got completely lost. Well, i understood what was being said, i just wasn't quite able to understand how Ians infatuation with judo could still leave him a practicing artist, because he arranges judo events around the country. Having studied Yves Klein myself i completely understood Kleins relevance to the judo, and i thought it quite moving that Whittlesea was so clearly passionate about his new vocation, however is saddened me slightly that he seemed to find that vocation by moving away completely from the area of practical art.

Steven Connor is Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck College London. His talk was part of the Touched Talk series for Liverpool Biennial.

His Philosophy of Fidgets talked in-depth about the small little things that we do on a daily basis without even thinking about it.if i was reading the book myself, i would probably have got bogged down in the metaphorical analysis' used, however Connor spoke with such enthusiasm and conviction i found myself really connecting with the words and seeking out personal experiences that related to what Connor was referencing in his talk.

Connor talked at length about the philosophical properties of sellotape, mentioned the “timbre of pulling sellotape off a roll” , and the “ambivalent delight of pulling sticky tape from itself”. Although on first hearing the idea of sellotope as a "philosophical machines" seems quite ridiculous. However on listening to him for a while i actually thought he had some very valid points. There is something very pleasurable about the sensation of messing with sticky tape, which, until Connor pointed it out, i had never realised thought about.

Again, although connors practice is not in the sam vain as my own, i did, in this instance, take some positive things away from this lecture. The ability to break things down into simple, understandable metaphors are think more creatively about the mundane everyday things in life, in order to make them relevant to myself.

"Adam Chodzko’s art explores the interactions of human behaviour. Using a wide variety of media - from video to performance to fly-posters to drawing - his work explores a collective wondering: how can we engage with the existence of others? How else might we relate? And what reality emerges from the search for this knowledge?"

Adam Chodzko comes primarily from a fine art background, having studied it at MA level in london, after a BA in History of Art.

He now seemingly works mostly with instillation work, public art, and such like.personally i don't really like this form of art because i feel that although perhaps there has been a clever idea somewhere along the way, or the attempt to convey some kind of message to the public, that there is no real artist skill or craftsman ship involved. simply the money and time to set the whole thing up.

Although i respect everyones own interpretation of the word artist, and i can understand why some people would enjoy and find chodzko's work interesting, for me i am more interested in a more production based art, creating original items whether they be photographs, paintings, posters, interactive flash or even illustrations.

Another issue i had with Chodzko's lecture was his flouncy use of language, that just made we want to switch off because i couldnt keep track of what he was saying.

So really i didn't find much relevance in this lecture as far as my own practice is concerned but i suppose its always good to be contextually aware of what other practicing artists are doing.